Whenever I do my archaeological digs in Youtube to learn more about past music and how it spawned future music, I stumble across these entries by fanatic zealots, which read like being written by some seven year old kid. It is irritating to see seemingly adult persons even wage religious wars about “their” idol, once someone doubts the devine power and keeps him/her for an ordinary person. Who are these people? I am asking because it seems to me like a strange phenonmenom that I cannot seem to understand. Or maybe I can?

I remember some time back in my teen days (a few centuries ago) when I had the silly notion of becoming and being treated like someone I admired just by imitating this person. Of course this is a logical fallacy, as it bases on the idiotic assertion that there are objective criteria for admiration that equally apply to all people. However, what I find impressive may not automatically mean anything to someone else. Consequently it did not take that long for me to figure out that it makes you look rather silly, when all you do, say and practice is a mere quotation of someone else, you expect people to behave predictably to any stimulus you provide to them and deny the possibility they might disagree with your views.

I wonder why these fanatics at places like Youtube cannot seem to find out about this simple fact? Someone had a lucky day and wrote a good piece of music. That is marvellous, sometimes it even happens to me, but that alone is nothing special. What about performance artists who take the poses their audience want to see from them? I guess that qualifies as giving in or start believing the own hype. A fatal combination? You have the artist who wants to be recognised as an accepted member of society. A zealot’s idolatry, however, has nothing to do with the outside world but merely with him/herself, reducing the artist to a fetish and making him irrelevant as a person. Hmm, I sense a conflict here that boils down to the artist feeling misunderstood and abused.

Conclusio: Do not believe that as a renowned artist your life suddenly changes. Not more or less than for the fanatics waging wars for their idols at Youtube. Do not believe that “fans” are interested in you as a person. Actually they cannot, for if they did they would sacrifice their fetish and had to look for a substitute. Obviously nothing changes, except for the increased awareness of being excluded from those you tried to reach. Which only leaves art itself as a motor to carry on. Doing one’s work whilst waiting for Godot.